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Singing for Joy in Kenya Starving in the Horn of Africa The Story of Geoffrey

AFGHANISTAN: Avalanches cut off parts of drought-hit northeast
KABUL 17 January 2012 (IRIN) - Avalanches in northeastern Afghanistan have cut off tens - if not hundreds - of thousands of people already at risk of hunger due to drought, opening the door to a potential humanitarian crisis if aid cannot reach them, says a provincial official.
AFRICA: AU wants peace, security and bigger global role in 2012
WASHINGTON 12 January 2012 (IRIN) - The African Union (AU) has unveiled an ambitious wish-list of priorities for Africa that would give the continent a stronger global voice, boost democracy and encourage peace and security.
Analysis: 2012 – “The Year of Crisis” in the Middle East
DUBAI 12 January 2012 (IRIN) - If you thought 2011 was a historic year for the Middle East, 2012 is likely to be even more unpredictable.
Analysis: Nepal’s Monsanto debate spotlights seed sovereignty
KATHMANDU 10 January 2012 (IRIN) - An effort by US donors and multinational agribusiness Monsanto to partner with Nepal to boost local maize production with imported hybrid seeds has met civil society opposition calling - instead - for home-grown solutions.
MYANMAR: Rice harvests lost in Kachin conflict zones
KACHIN STATE 06 January 2012 (IRIN) - The annual harvest season in Myanmar's northern Kachin State has come and gone but much of the rice crop has not been harvested or was never planted after fighting between government forces and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) erupted on 9 June 2011.
SOUTHERN AFRICA: Floods leave Angolan returnees stranded
JOHANNESBURG 06 January 2012 (IRIN) - Several thousand Angolan returnees from the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are stranded by floods in northeastern Angola. They are among the first casualties of what promises to be a very wet rainy season in parts of southern Africa.
MIDDLE EAST: The year that was
DUBAI 04 January 2012 (IRIN) - When hundreds of thousands of people across the Arab world poured into the streets in 2011 to demand freedom from dictatorship, they set in motion a series of events which not only created humanitarian needs in countries that were otherwise relatively stable, but also exacerbated existing humanitarian and developmental challenges.
HIV/AIDS: Ten big stories in 2011
NAIROBI/JOHANNESBURG 29 December 2011 (IRIN) - It's been a roller coaster of a year in HIV and AIDS. AIDS turned 30 in 2011, and with new evidence of the effectiveness of HIV treatment as prevention, experts are increasingly talking about "the end of AIDS". At the same time, however, funding for HIV has become ever more uncertain, jeopardizing efforts to put new, life-saving science into action.
SOUTHERN AFRICA: Pick of the year 2011
JOHANNESBURG 29 December 2011 (IRIN) - In 2011 the global economic crisis combined with poor governance, financial mismanagement and unpredictable rainfall to push several southern African countries to the point of crisis. Others responded to rising unemployment and increased pressure on national budgets by hardening their attitude towards immigrants and closing their borders to asylum-seekers. IRIN covered developments from all over the region, but the following stories consistently grabbed headlines:
TECHNOLOGY: IRIN's pick of the year 2011
NAIROBI 29 December 2011 (IRIN) - Computers and mobile phones are already essential to humanitarian planning, and 2011 saw the growth of technology-based humanitarian interventions, from the use of GPS (global positioning systems) to provide early weather warnings to real-time health reporting.
ZIMBABWE: WFP buy local scheme helps farmers
HARARE 27 December 2011 (IRIN) - Veteran small-scale farmer Trynos Mamombe has returned to maize farming after two years, thanks to a multi-partner initiative which is helping him to market his crop and get paid for it promptly.
YEMEN: Yemen malnutrition data should "shock"
DUBAI 27 December 2011 (IRIN) - Aid workers hope "shocking" new malnutrition figures from a survey conducted in western Yemen will help highlight the serious humanitarian situation in the country and prompt donors to act immediately.
FOOD: WTO "must address" food security
JOHANNESBURG 23 December 2011 (IRIN) - An exchange between two leading world officials on how trade affects food insecurity in countries has helped focus attention on the stalled Doha trade talks.
Analysis: Six ways to take the bite out of Bangladesh food price hikes
DHAKA 22 December 2011 (IRIN) - Food price increases have typically been followed by declining energy, vitamin and mineral intake and worsening malnutrition among Bangladesh's poorest. As food prices continue to climb, IRIN asked experts how to break this pattern.
SUDAN-SOUTH SUDAN: Kumke Lete, “I have seven children and they are eating nothing”
DORO 20 December 2011 (IRIN) - More than 20,000 people have fled bombs and violence in Sudan’s Blue Nile state to Doro refugee camp in South Sudan to seek food and shelter.
YEMEN: Changing the narrative
DUBAI 20 December 2011 (IRIN) - Aid workers in Yemen, the Middle East’s poorest country, appear to have made some headway in broadening the mainstream narrative to include the deepening humanitarian crisis.
SOMALIA: Kismayo IDPs face hunger, drug shortages
NAIROBI 20 December 2011 (IRIN) - The plight of internally displaced people (IDPs) in Somalia's southern port city of Kismayo, controlled by Al-Shabab insurgents, has deteriorated, with thousands facing a food crisis after supply routes were blocked, and drug shortages as patient numbers increase, locals said.
FILM: Kenya's unga revolution
NAIROBI 15 December 2011 (IRIN) - Throughout 2011, Kenyans have faced the strain of rising prices of unga, or maize flour, the staple food for millions. Kenya's Unga Revolution follows activist Emily Kwamboka as she takes to the streets to demand a change in the lives of ordinary Kenyans.
KENYA: Number hit by floods tops 100,000
NAIROBI 15 December 2011 (IRIN) - Rain-induced floods in several parts of Kenya have affected at least 105,000 people and weakened the country's food security situation – already affected by severe drought - a government official said on 15 December.
SWAZILAND: Bleak outlook for food security
MBABANE 15 December 2011 (IRIN) - Archaic agriculture practices and erratic rainfall in the recent planting period is expected to lead to an increase in food insecurity for most of Swaziland’s 1.1 million people in 2012, says a government agriculture official.
SAHEL: Act now to avoid another crisis, say aid agencies
DAKAR 14 December 2011 (IRIN) - Aid agencies are warning donors to act now to avert another drought-related food crisis in the Sahel that could mean over 11 million people sink into further food insecurity, poverty or malnutrition.
BANGLADESH: “Invisible hazard” of groundwater depletion
DHAKA 13 December 2011 (IRIN) - Experts warn rapid depletion of Bangladesh’s underground water table could jeopardize food and water security for millions throughout the country and also endanger the biodiversity of one of the world’s largest mangrove forests within the next two decades.
Analysis: Land deals "threaten South Sudan's development"
JUBA 12 December 2011 (IRIN) - Land deals done in newly-independent South Sudan “threaten to undermine the land rights of rural communities, increase food insecurity, entrench poverty, and skew development patterns” in the resource-rich but poor nation, a new report says.
CLIMATE CHANGE: Rural women make themselves heard in Durban
DURBAN 09 December 2011 (IRIN) - While heads of state and negotiators gathered behind closed doors at the 17th conference of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Durban, more than 500 women from across Africa arrived by the busload at the nearby University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) chanting and singing.
In Brief: New reports on climate change impact in 10 developing countries
DURBAN 08 December 2011 (IRIN) - A series of reports examining the impact of climate change in 23 countries has been launched on the sidelines of the UN climate talks in Durban. South Africa.